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Toledo Central Catholic and Bishop Hartley advance in Division II, no undefeated teams left at state
November 9, 2007

By Jim Jicha

“I don’t know how you can put it in words. Someone finally put the bull’s eye on our backs”. Those were the words of Salem Coach Don Conser after Toledo Central Catholic rallied to knock off the top ranked undefeated Quakers 22-25, 19-25, 25-15, 25-6, 15-13 in the first a Division II state semifinal. Conser added “You saw four different teams out there in games one and two versus three and four. The fifth game was nip and tuck and nip got tucked”.

Indeed, the match was like night and day.

The first game had nine ties and six lead changes, while the second was tied seven times and saw four lead changes. And Salem prevailed in both. The Quakers jumped ahead 6-2 in game one led by sophomore Amy Scullion who started a five point run with a kill and then served while senior sister Katie spiked two kills.
Central went up 10-9 as Kristi Helldobler blocked and spiked points. Salem went back on top 11-10 and edged further ahead 19-16.

But when Central 6’2” outside hitter Ashley Frazier terminated a volley, Kelsey Gerken stepped up and served three aces as the Irish went back on top 20-19. After an error tied it, Frazier dug Amy Scullion and libero Amanda Gray scored a kill.

But Salem spurted ahead 23-21 on two kills by Amy Scullion, a dig at the net from defensive specialist Brianne Wagner and a kill by middle Allison Ward. Two errors by Central ended the game.
Salem took a 5-1 lead, and continued the margin to 10-6. Following a Salem service error, Central tied on kills by Amanda Arnold and Ashley Sujkowski and another ace by Gerken.

The teams stayed within a point as the Scullions handled Salem’s scoring. The Quakers took the lead for good on a seven point run served by Paige Kenreigh. Up 22-16, they parried with Central to the end.
When game three started, there were new versions of the teams on the floor. And after a 1-1 tie, Central ran off the first of two seven-point rallies, behind the hitting of Frazier and Amber Wiczynski, and serving of Arnold. With the Irish up 13-4, Salem began a mini rally to close the gap to 18-15. At one point Amy Scullion powered three straight kills.

But then Central ran off seven more points to end the game, with Frazier serving up two aces.
Beginning a new game didn’t stop the Irish as they scored 12 more points in a row, making it 19 straight overall. Arnold served, Frazier spiked two points, and Julia Haupricht was in on three blocks. Libero Amanda Gray was phenomenal in the backcourt.

Frazier would score five more kills and Gerken serve two aces, as Central blitzed to the finish. Frazier ended it with a booming block on Amy Scullion.

In game five the score was tied twice, at 3 and 4, and Central led the rest of the time.
The Irish were up 7-4, 10-5 and a match point 14-9 when Katie Scullion spiked from backcourt to start a four point run that was helped by two hitting errors. The rally was one point short of tying when a hitting error ended the match.

Conser said the match was a topper for momentum swings, which says something since he’s been coaching for 30 years. “When everything got tight I called a couple timeouts but they didn’t help” he added.
Central Coach Melissa Belcher thought her team started off wanting to win too much and said they “were just banging the ball in the first two games and not being smart with it”. But “they became scrappier in game three, doing anything to keep the ball alive” and after that she said “I felt my kids were in their groove”.
Frazier had a somewhat different take on the first two games. She said they didn’t know much about Salem other than “we needed to put up a big block on the Scullions”. She said they learned what else they needed to during those first two games.

Frazier, who led the Irish attack with 18 kills, added “having depth on our team definitely helped us out”.
Wiczynski had 13 kills, and Haupricht, Arnold and Helldobler added 8, 7 and 6, respectively. Arnold had 30 assists and Gerken 20. Gray led the defense with a whopping 32 digs, and Frazier and Haupricht were the leading blockers.

The Scullion sisters recorded 38 of Salem’s 41 kills, and Taylor Toothman had 35 assists. Katie Scullion had 13 digs, Toothman 11 and Amy Scullion 10.

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After Salem lost, that left Tippecanoe as the only unbeaten team left in the state. And one marathon match later there were no undefeated teams, as Bishop Hartley knocked off the Red Devils 21-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-19, 16-14. This match was one for the memory books, two hours and seven minutes of long intense volleys between two equally matched teams that fought valiantly to the end. Despite the closeness of the match, there were only a total of eight ties and two lead changes in the first four games. Game five, however, saw eight ties and three changes.

Giana D’Andrea had a huge day for Hartley, leading the Hawks with 17 kills and ten total blocks. Coach Max Miller said after the match “She definitely raised her game a level tonight. I could see it in her eyes”. D’Andrea attributed her performance to “thinking about all the conditioning we did…I knew we wanted it…the seniors wanted it”.

Also contributing to the Hawks’ attack were Addie Zavatsky and Teresa Trucco with 14 kills apiece and Lindsey Coffield with seven. Lindsay Gaughan and Nicole Howard combined for 41 of the Hawks 53 total assists. Libero Abby Weisenberger led in digging with 20, with Trucco and Zavatsky adding 17 and 15. Hartley had 12.5 team blocks with 23 block assists.

Tippecanoe had four hitters reach double figures: Cassie Berning 17, Gina Porto 16, Hilary Andrews 13 and Abby Dowd with 11. Hallie Donathan had 44 assists. Dowd and Evelyn Carus tied with 19 digs, Berning added 17, and Porto and Donathan combined for 16 more.

Hartley led for half of game one, when it wasn’t tied. Their biggest edge was four and they were still atop 15-13 when Berning started a five point run that put Tippecanoe on top for good. The Red Devils gradually upped the lead to 24-19 and Porto ended the set with a kill off the slide.

Hartley took advantage of errors in game two to go up 6-1, and when Tippecanoe closed to 8-7, the Hawks scored five more with D’Andrea in on two block assists and Allison Hagans scoring a kill. Coffield also served an ace.

Tippecanoe narrowed the lead again to 20-17, but Hartley scored five of the last seven.
The final point came on a long Tippecanoe hit that came after Weisenberger dug a Red Devil blast over the net.

Game three was a rerun of game two, only Tippecanoe won this one. The Red Devils led 4-2, 6-3, and 10-5. Hartley closed to 12-11, but Porto blocked D’Andrea and spiked a cross court kill and Andrews aced two serves. Hartley closed to 20-18, but Tippecanoe pulled away to the end.

Hartley led all of game four starting with 2-0, 4-1 and 10-4. The closest Tippecanoe ever got was four.
Game five was wild, with Tippecanoe up first 1-0, then Hartley 2-1 and 3-2. Carus tied it at 3 and Tippecanoe moved ahead 6-3 on two aces by Porto, and 8-4 on kills by Berning and Dowd.

Hartley tied at 10 with D’Andrea blocking and Zavatsky spiking a kill. The score was tied at 11, 12 and 13 with Hartley a step ahead on each point. The Harks went up 14-13 on a double block by Coffield and Loren Fallert. Berning tied it again with a kill.

But Hartley went back on top on a tip by Coffield, and on the next volley she and Allison Hagans blocked Andrews for match point.

Miller said afterward that when Hartley fell behind he reminded them of their match with Roger Bacon. After they lost the first two games of that one, he told the players “this could be a statement match of their season”. Hartley lost that match, but in five. And that, along with their overall strong schedule helped toughen them for the challenge they got yesterday, according to Miller.

Weisenberger added "We never gave up. The games we lost this season helped us win this one".
As for the loss, Tippecanoe Coach Pat Carus said he was “extraordinarily disappointed for our players”. He added “they played wonderfully, but hats off to Hartley, they played great too”. Carus said his team’s play got disorganized at times “but only because of Hartley”. And he cited Hartley’s D’Andrea saying “she absolutely stood out…big players rise up in big matches”.

For Porto and Donathan, playing at the Nutter Center in front of their 2000 fans was a thrill. Donathan said the fans are like a big family and "they bring our energy with them". Porto said they never thought the whole town would come out for volleyball.